Lehigh, Lafayette believe Yankee Stadium a good fit

Officials say venue provides a regional spotlight and will make 150th game special.

Lehigh and Lafayette will play the 150th game against each other in Yankee… (Seth Wenig, AP )

November 20, 2012|By JD Malone, Of The Morning Call

The last time the Lehigh-Lafayette football game was played outside of the Lehigh Valley, in 1891, the Mountain Hawks steamrolled the Leopards 16-2 in Wilkes-Barre. No offense to the Diamond City, but this time the schools are reaching a little higher.

As Bruce McCutcheon, Lafayette's athletic director, and Joe Sterrett, Lehigh's dean of athletics, traded ideas about how to celebrate the schools' 2014 matchup — the 150th in the series — big places with big corporate names came up: Lincoln Financial Field and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

All were too big. Other collegiate venues, which offered more seats than Fisher Stadium's 17,000, felt wrong. The allure of one location proved too strong, much as it has for many a baseball player: Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

"As we went through that process, there was a fairly natural realization that … if we are going to take it somewhere other than the Lehigh Valley," Sterrett said, "then it needs to be special."

McCutcheon said the attraction of Yankee Stadium is more than just lore and the ghosts of the past.

"Yankee Stadium is an iconic venue, it is a worldwide venue," McCutcheon said.

Talks began two or three years ago, according to McCutcheon, as the schools tossed around possibilities for celebrating the 150th game. The rivalry is the most-played in college football, and one of the oldest in all of sports. It has been played consecutively for 116 years in either Bethlehem or Easton.

"I think the game deserves the attention of a bigger stage," Sterrett said. "In this moment, this is a special opportunity."

As the schools approached the Yankees, they found a friend. Mark Holtzman, a 1980 Lafayette grad, is the director of non-baseball operations for the Yankees. McCutcheon said Holtzman embraced the idea and was with the two college presidents, Alice Gast and Daniel Weiss, on Saturday as they announced that Yankee Stadium will be the venue in 2014.

The Yankees built a new stadium in 2009, next door to the old one, at a cost of $1.5 billion. The new stadium seats more than 50,000 for baseball or football. Sterrett said the stadium would be configured to hold 36,000 for Lehigh-Lafayette.

Holtzman, a former NFL executive, did not respond to a request for comment.

At least one Lafayette alum finds the venue offensive. Joe Bozik, a Lafayette Hall of Fame quarterback, said moving the game off campus is a shock and a blow to the game's tradition.

"I would rather play the game at our stadium," said Bozik, who led Lafayette past Lehigh in 1957. "[As a student-athlete] I probably would have said that that sounds pretty good, but right now it doesn't sound pretty good."

Lehigh and Lafayette officials said a TV deal has not been negotiated, but other college football games played in the new Yankee Stadium, including two bowl games, have been televised. Those games, including Notre Dame-Army in 2010, included matchups involving Division I schools. Lafayette and Lehigh play in the Football Championship Subdivision series, the former I-AA.

Bozik contends the game will not draw a lot of TV viewers, and if it does, they'll see a lot of empty seats.

McCutcheon and Sterrett said they don't expect to sell out, but hope that the location, and early marketing, draw more alumni, sports fans and other interested people than any game at Lehigh or Lafayette ever could.

Yankee Stadium also features suites, luxury boxes, clubs, dining rooms and banquet facilities that may prove useful for events surrounding the game. McCutcheon said he envisions a couple of days' worth of activity for the schools at the stadium.

Sterrett, a former Lehigh quarterback, said the players are excited to be playing on such a hallowed stage, and that he would have welcomed the opportunity in his day.

McCutcheon said Lafayette will still act as the home team and enjoy the benefits of suiting up in the Yankees' locker room.

"It'll be a fight over who gets Derek Jeter's locker," said McCutcheon, who dismissed the idea that Lafayette will not have the traditional home-field advantage.

Sterrett and McCutcheon agreed that taking the game to New York City is a risk, and it might anger some alums, like Bozik, but they also believe the good outweighs the bad. The game will give the institutions a national spotlight, and a backdrop that many alums identify with — about 40 percent of Lehigh students come from New York or New Jersey.

Even with the location nailed down, the schools have much to work on. Ticket prices, travel packages, busing from campuses and other details remain unknown. Sterrett hopes to hold ticket prices at a moderate level to enable as many people as possible to go.

McCutcheon said now that the heavy lifting is done, the fun part begins — figuring out how the 150th game will all come together.

"We have a lot more work to do," McCutcheon said, "but it's all good stuff."

The 2014 game between Lehigh and Lafayette will not be the first time the schools have played at a venue known as Yankee Stadium. Lafayette played in the old Yankee Stadium five times, the first time in 1924, compiling a 2-3 record. Lehigh played once, losing to New York University 13-0 in 1937.